Staying in the Grand Sheraton Sukhumvit in Bangkok can be alittle intimidating. For one thing the view from the 19th floor room is one oftowering skyscrapers and the skytrain shooting across and for another, therestaurant on the lobby level has a very subdued and formal air about it. Whatyou want to do is get out into the open and explore.
If you want to have a real taste of Thailand’s cuisine, goout on the roads. Or if you prefer to sit and eat, choose one of the ‘mom andpop’ restaurants. A favorite is ChoteChitr in the older part of the city where the Yam Makhua (a salad of grilledlong eggplants topped with tiny dried shrimps) makes for a perfect combinationwith the tang of fresh shallots with expert charring. The vegetables have asmoky crunch on the outside but reveal a juicy eggplant so sweet it resembles aripe peach, full of lime juice and fish sauce.
A 90-year-old establishment, Chote Chitr is also known forits Mee Krob (crunchy stir-fried vermicelli flavoured with a caramelized sauceof palm sugar, ginger, lemon grass and som saa). Elsewhere, the street vendorsdish out an amazing variety of food with a basic staple of either rice ornoodles. Thais essentially love to have small meals at regular intervals ratherthan three square ones and are very fastidious about cleanliness. Street foodis therefore popular and safe. Nearly every street in Bangkok will have vendorsselling thin, slightly sweet egg noodles, wide, chewy rice noodles and Pad Thaitopped in gooey omelets.
One could also try the Plaa Tod Kratiem Phrik Thai which isfish coated in garlic and thin chilies and then deep-fried. This is great forthose who don’t mind the taste and aroma of garlic lingering long after youhave had your meal. The fish skin crunches like cornflakes, and squirts hot,oily garlic into the mouth. The best street food can be had at the ‘Kap Gaeng’(with rice) joints which are collections of street stalls serving variouscurries over rice. At Talad Loong Perm, a collection of stalls near ThaiAirways’ main office in Bangkok, vendors stir crimson, orange and yellowcurries floating with wisps of coconut milk.
And for those who love their food spicy, you must try outthe Gaeng Pa, or jungle curry, wherein intense chillies and bamboo shoots aretraditionally used to cover the flavour of wild game or nearly spoiled meat.Nowadays of course it is made with tender chicken. The thing is that most suchvendors won’t have menu cards and they won’t know English either. So the onlyway to get about it is to point and order. Noodles is what Thai food is bestknown for and there are chicken noodles, duck noodles and egg noodles withwonton and beef and meat ball noodles as also ‘Yen Ta Four’ (noodles in red soybean paste with fish ball, squid and morning glory).
The best thing about Thai street food is that it comescheap. While dinner for one person at a proper air-conditioned restaurant wouldeasily cost between 300-500 baht (at the current that works out to about Rs550-900), a good whole meal at any of the street vendors would set you back byonly about 100-150 baht. And the taste is so genuinely local. Definitely thecomplete Thai experience.
